Assaults on the Buses: a renewed case for more CCTV on public transport
It may have been the week that the G20 met and NATO celebrated its 60th anniversary, but a hot topic in the French press last week was the shocking revelation that a police officer had uploaded a video of a viscous assault onto the social networking site Facebook.
I have only just today seen this video and besides being in a state of disgust and shock, it unfortunately resonates somewhat with my horrible experience. Le Figaro even revealed on Monday that the victim is a current student at Sciences Po in Paris.
Anyway, the six-minute video shows a student being surrounded and set upon by four youths while on a night-bus in the north of central Paris late one night last December. The youths, after emptying his pockets, can be seen setting upon fellow passengers as they tried to intervene, which resulted in a fracas on board.
While this all commotion was taking place behind him the driver remained impassive and continued the journey. At the next bus stop, the driver pulls over and the youths leave the bus, throwing more punches in the process. One is even seen to return to land one last blow.
The RATP transport authority (who operates the public transport in Paris) says that its bus drivers have explicit orders not to intervene in defence of passengers but to stay at the wheel and press a silent alarm button. Whatever happened to the ‘customers come first’ business morale?
Naturally the video has since been removed from Facebook, but not until after the media had picked it up. They are naturally (and rightly so) calling for the police officer to be charged for releasing this video, presumably done so for his own amusement. The police have said that two of the youths were arrested on the spot after the driver called for help and a third has since been detained, so I guess that means the fourth is still out there. I hope that he is found and they all get the sentences they deserve.
If you would like to watch this video click here* (please be advised that it is quite disturbing).
But besides the issue of the leaked video, which is very serious in itself – especially if the case is still open – I believe this constitutes further proof that security cameras work on public transport.
It truly is amazing how one event can dramatically change how you feel. When security cameras first appeared on buses and trains back in the UK I felt like I was being constantly watched, constantly under surveillance and that I was no longer ‘free’ to travel as I pleased. Now however, after one certain train journey in Paris four weeks ago, my whole view on this has changed.
Security cameras are there for a reason, and that reason is to protect us. If this constitutes an invasion of my privacy then that is something that I can live with. I now only wait on platforms under the nose of a security camera and I always travel in populated coaches. Because of this I feel safe travelling, and I am no longer afraid.
In the case of this unfortunate student in the video, if the security cameras were not on board, would any of these youths have been bought to justice? This footage will enable the assailants’ faces to be visually captured rather than recreated through witness statements, and the whole passage of events can be accurately compiled and thanks to the video evidence, can be undisputable.
Security cameras are therefore in my eyes essential and should be accepted as part of daily life rather than rejected. But of course, the footage recorded must be treated with the utmost respect, something that was hardly exhibited by this certain police officer.
Another argument put forward by the public transport authorities for these cameras on their vehicles is that they act as a deterrent for such crimes. However, on this point I’m not so sure. But when (and heaven forbid should it) something like this happens to you, I’d like to think you would take some comfort knowing that there are cameras there to have caught it, and that justice can be done. With no CCTV and no proof that anything happened to me, the police were not interested in my instance.
So what about on the Parisian buses? Well, according to RATP drivers, such attacks are fairly commonplace on the buses that run through the night. One is even quoted in the local paper le Parisien saying: "If you do not have money for a taxi on Saturday night, it's better to stay in the disco and wait for the morning.”
Useful advice - I’ll be sure to remember that.
Labels: Comment, Current Affairs
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